TOWARD A TEXTUAL AND LINGUISTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SERMON ON LAW AND GRACE

The article examines the textual and linguistic data from the manuscripts of The Sermon on Law and Grace by Hilarion, which were presented by J. Dziffer in a recent publication as allegedly refuting the traditional view of the priority of the Synodal manuscript (State Historical Museum, Syn. 951) for the manuscript tradition of the Sermon. It is demonstrated that this data cannot be classified as innovations; on the contrary, it reflects the most ancient features of the text of the monument. Special attention is given to two aspects: (1) the use of the 1st person plural imperative form въздадимъ (vъzdadimъ) in the function of the 1st person plural present tense; (2) the functional distribution of the present-tense forms of the verb имѣти (iměti), derived from the present-tense stem има- (ima-) and from the infi nitive stem имѣ- (imě-). These spellings do not vary across the manuscript copies of The Sermon on Law and Grace, and therefore most likely trace back to the archetype of the text. An analysis of material from Old Russian sources demonstrates that the pattern of their usage in The Sermon on Law and Grace conforms to the written norm of Old Russian of the 11th century.