Theodore of Mopsuestia. Homily on the Lord’s Prayer (the eleventh homily in the series of the sixteen “Catechetical Homilies”). Translation, introductory article and comments by Sofya Puchkova

This commented translation of Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Homily on the Lord’s Prayer, the eleventh homily in the series of the sixteen Catechetical Homilies, is the first Russian translation. The translator used the French edition of facsimile copy of the manuscript Mingana Syr. 561, which contains the Syriac version of Theodore’s Catechetical Homilies, whose Greek original did not survive. The translation tends to be as literal as possible, only by necessity adapting the syntax and some lexis. It is equipped with a brief theological commentary and the parallels were made between Theodore’s exegesis of the Lord’s prayer and that of John Chrysostom and Cyril of Jerusalem, from which the former has a greater similarity with Theodore’s. This means that both Theodore and John share the common, apparently, Antiochene, tradition of the exposition of the Lord’s prayer. Since Theodore’s homily presents his ethical teaching in form of the commentary on the Lord’s prayer, the present translation is the first attempt to fulfill the lacuna existing in the Russian scholarship of Theodorian legacy and to portray Theodore not only as an exegete and a theologian, but also as a pastor of the Church