Taras Khomych: An Early Slavonic Translation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp:

This contribution will focus on an important Old Church Slavonic translation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp which has never been published, remaining virtually unknown until now.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp has come down to us via two branches of tradition: the menologia (liturgical books of the Byzantine Church tradition) and the fourth-century Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius of Caesarea, both of which transmit the text with a considerable number of differences. These differences constitute the subject of scholarly discussions. Although the text of the menologia has gained considerable scholarly support in the last few decades, disputes over textual problems of the Martyrdom of Polycarp have not been solved. Until now, however, these discussions have not been informed by a valuable evidence, which will become the focus of this particular investigation. This presentation, more specifically, will deal with the Old Church Slavonic translation of the Martyrdom, a text not taken into account by any of the previous editions. Preliminary investigations would indicate that this Church Slavonic version provides an independent (from the extant Greek manuscripts) witness to the text of the Martyrdom and as a result is of significant text-critical value. Building upon my previous publication on this topic and the recent research on the Old Church Slavonic translations, this contribution will point to the importance of this versional evidence, informing, above all, ongoing research on the text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp and contributing, at the same time, to a better understanding of this important early Christian writing.