Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature

This article deals with a genre known as hermenia and attested in early Coptic religious literature. Hermenia represents a compilation of verses from Psalter (with a rare addition of verses from other Biblical books) that are picked according to the occurence of the same keyword, i. e. it was a pred...

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Main Author: Eugenia Smagina
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University 2018-12-01
Series:Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
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Online Access:http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6765
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author Eugenia Smagina
author_facet Eugenia Smagina
author_sort Eugenia Smagina
collection DOAJ
description This article deals with a genre known as hermenia and attested in early Coptic religious literature. Hermenia represents a compilation of verses from Psalter (with a rare addition of verses from other Biblical books) that are picked according to the occurence of the same keyword, i. e. it was a predecessor sui generis of Biblical concordance. The most extensive hermenia preserved is contained in the manuscript M 574 from the collection of Pierpont Morgan, dated to the 9th century; it serves as a source for this study. There arises the question why this genre has this particular name, literally meaning “defi nition, translation”. Comparing it with the biblical “literature of Wisdom”, we see its succession with regard to the numerical parable, where a certain number of objects and phenomena mentioned at the beginning are classifi ed according to the shared property or characteristic. In the Jewish exegesis of Tanakh, the numerical parable is transformed into a numerical midrash, where the source of material is Scripture, while the complilation is made by the shared keyword or root. A variety of a similar explanation, expanded and elaborated in a detailed way, is employed in the Manichean literature. The Coptic hermenia is presumably an abridged variant of the numerical midrash, employed by the early Coptic church with liturgical aims.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1991-6485
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publishDate 2018-12-01
publisher St. Tikhon's Orthodox University
record_format Article
series Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
spelling doaj-art-6ab2ac0ecfcf4e8fab56a5ecd01ae1352025-08-20T03:33:39ZrusSt. Tikhon's Orthodox UniversityВестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология1991-64852409-48972018-12-015757102109http://dx.doi.org/10.15382/sturIII201857.102-1096Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literatureEugenia Smagina0Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; 12 Rozhrestvenka Str., Moscow, 107031, Russian FederationThis article deals with a genre known as hermenia and attested in early Coptic religious literature. Hermenia represents a compilation of verses from Psalter (with a rare addition of verses from other Biblical books) that are picked according to the occurence of the same keyword, i. e. it was a predecessor sui generis of Biblical concordance. The most extensive hermenia preserved is contained in the manuscript M 574 from the collection of Pierpont Morgan, dated to the 9th century; it serves as a source for this study. There arises the question why this genre has this particular name, literally meaning “defi nition, translation”. Comparing it with the biblical “literature of Wisdom”, we see its succession with regard to the numerical parable, where a certain number of objects and phenomena mentioned at the beginning are classifi ed according to the shared property or characteristic. In the Jewish exegesis of Tanakh, the numerical parable is transformed into a numerical midrash, where the source of material is Scripture, while the complilation is made by the shared keyword or root. A variety of a similar explanation, expanded and elaborated in a detailed way, is employed in the Manichean literature. The Coptic hermenia is presumably an abridged variant of the numerical midrash, employed by the early Coptic church with liturgical aims.http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6765коптская литература гермения псалтирь экзегеза библии числовая притча числовой мидраш жанры раннехристианской литературы
spellingShingle Eugenia Smagina
Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
коптская литература
гермения
псалтирь
экзегеза библии
числовая притча
числовой мидраш
жанры раннехристианской литературы
title Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
title_full Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
title_fullStr Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
title_full_unstemmed Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
title_short Hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
title_sort hermenia as a genre of coptic liturgical literature
topic коптская литература
гермения
псалтирь
экзегеза библии
числовая притча
числовой мидраш
жанры раннехристианской литературы
url http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6765
work_keys_str_mv AT eugeniasmagina hermeniaasagenreofcopticliturgicalliterature