The article deals with four fragments of homilies by an unknown Christian preacher, which probably formed a single exegetical series of interpretations of the Book of Gen esis. The codicological features of two Vatican manuscripts in which the fragments have sur vived are analyzed; the sources of the exegesis of the anonymous preacher, namely the writings of the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria, with which extensive parallels have emerged, are stud ied. The article gives an editio princeps of the texts and their Russian translation.

The present paper is devoted to the study of the problem of the textual meth od of analyzing the books of the Old Testament used by St John Chrysostom. Using the method of linguistic analysis of texts and linguistic units in the commentaries of St John Chrysostom on the Old Testament books (especially the Book of Psalms and Prophet Isaiah) we have revealed that he tends to compare various Greek biblical translations to clarify the meaning of the texts from the Holy Scripture. At the same time certain preferences of St John Chrysostom become apparent—working with the Septuagint and the Lucianic version of the Septuagint he most often appeals to the revisions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. The comparative method of analyzing the commentaries of St John Chrysostom on the books of the Old Testament allowed us to conclude that, on the one hand, the use of the revisions was determined by the necessity to translate the meaning of the biblical texts as accurately as possible. On the other hand, the use of different translations was crucial for St John Chrysostom in constructing the exegetical vision of the Old Testament messianic texts under discussion.

The article presents the preparation of the critical edition of the treatise «On Mo nastic Life» by Athanasios Abu Ghalib († 1177), West Syrian theologian, bishop of Jihan, with Russian translation, notes and commentaries. Up to now the text was not edited and translated. The author provides a short survey on the sources of the edition, a brief review of the life and Church activity by Abu Ghalib in the political and historical context. The paper focuses on some theological and ascetical ideas of his monastical treatise. The author emphasizes the importance of this work as a source of theology, ascetism, monasticism, rhetoric of the West Syrian Christian tradition of 12th century.

In the frame of the present overview, scientific works connected to the Egyp tian studies of Boris A. Turaev (1868-1920) are represented. The historian, еgyptologist and specialist in Egyptian language and script, Boris A. Turaev examined the history of the Ancient Egypt mainly on the base of the literary sources and monuments of material culture. His scientific activity fell on the period of large-scale collecting of archeological monuments of the Orient and their accumulation in the funds of Museums and libraries all over the World. This provided the fertile ground for research in the field of the humanitarian science. As a result, more than a hundred of scientific works connected to a series of egyptological questions and monuments were published. An overview of these works here presented is structured thematically and in chronological order of their publication (where possible).

This review presents the contributions published in issue 22 of the Journal of Coptic Studies (2020). In this issue five of the twelve articles focus on the Coptic biblical text and biblical manuscripts (articles by Anne Boud’hors together with Sofíía Torallas Tovar, Lina Elhage-Mensching, Frank Feder together with Siegfried G. Richter, Hans Förster, Andrea Hasznos). There are also seven articles containing editions or reprints of texts from various genres: monastic wine delivery orders (article by Lajos Berkes together with Nikolaos Gonis), letters (two articles by Aaltje Hidding and Frederic Krueger), a recipe for dyeing fabrics (article by Tonio Sebastian Richter), epitaphs (article by Jacques van der Vliet), biblical (article by Andrea Hasznos) and liturgical texts (article by Ibrahim Saweros together with Jacques van der Vliet). Finally, an article by David Brakke focuses on the textual question of interpreting the passage of the Gospel of Judas.

There is the continuation of review of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2020). Here is number 1 (January) which non-traditionally concludes nearly seventy items of publications including the seven full-weight articles, more than fifty of the reviews, and the list of books received. In proposed overview of this journal’s issue all the published materials will be as usually briefly considered from the point of view of their content and main ideas.