Writings and the Authority of the Church Fathers in Old Polish Apocryphal Texts

What is it about?

The mediaeval Biblical and apocryphal narratives are the texts which are fundamental not only for the history of the Polish religious language, but also for the literature and language of the East Slavdom. _x000D_ In the recent years the question concerning the relations of the apocrypha with their Latin and Czech sources has been posed. How were the apocrypha written, what was their purpose, what did their writers know, how much independent were the authors, how did they work with the Latin sources, why they sometimes choose to be independent, and sometimes to translate word-by-word. These are some of the most frequent questions. The latest interdisciplinary studies have proved breakthrough demonstrating, firstly, that the texts of the mediaeval apocrypha are, in many dimensions, multilayered (genetically, stylistically, in their sources), secondly, their ultimate shape results from the decisions of many writers and is influenced by the authors’ interests, disposition or their major specializations._x000D_ The aim of the paper is to present the relation of biblical and apocryphal narratives to the texts of the Church Fathers (selected preferences, material selection, startegies of translation and use, differences in the use of canonical sources – Holy Bible, apocryphal and theological scriptures).

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