Index of Repudiated Books

In the Church Slavonic written tradition, the Index of Repudiated Books is a list of writings forbidden to be read by the Orthodox faithful. The works included in this list are renounced (rejected, stripped of authority and declared obsolete). They include apocrypha opposed to Biblical canon. The Slavonic lists originate in translations of the Byzantine lists. In Rus' they have been known since the eleventh century. The Izbornik of Sviatoslav II of Kiev of 1073 contains an index of renounced books and is the earliest bibliographic monument from Rus'. The Index of Repudiated Books may be considered the Orthodox counterpart to the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books.

The process of the development of the lists of the repudiated books is closely connected with the history of Christian literacy in general and with the canonization of religious texts. In different periods of history and in different milieus the term "apocrypha" has had different meanings and different works have been considered apocryphal.

The oldest Slavonic index of the renounced books, translated, is included in the Izbornik of Svyatoslav in 1073. Its copies (manuscripts) of the 15th–18th centuries, in which it is included in the article "Theologian from the words", or lists (manuscripts) dating back to the defective protograph, in which the list without a special title and beginning is attached to the previous article "The same John about the renounced books.

The article "Theologian from Words" is considered the first Russian bibliographical monument. The authorship of the article is attributed to Gregory the Theologian, but probably belongs to Anastasius Sinaitus. The article is included in most Russian copies (manuscripts) of the Izbornik of the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The "hidden" books are indicated at the end of the article. The list of books contains a reference to the prohibition of eretic books by Athanasius of Alexandria and to the author of the list of false books by Isidore (possibly Isidore of Pelusiot). Anastasius Sinaiticus, among whose writings the list is sometimes placed, is also assumed to be the author of this list.

A second, also translated list is contained in the Tacticon Nikon of the Black Mountain of the eleventh century, in which it is included in the second part of word XIII. It is based on the same list of Athanasius Isidor as in the Izbornik of 1073, supplemented by sources not named by the author. The apocryphal Revelation of John (Apocalypse of John) and works attributed to the apostles Andrew and Foma are first included. These two names are included based on indications in John Damascene's work On Heresies, as evidenced by the reference in the Tacticon. The index of this type has survived in a number of Russian, Serbian and bulgarian copies (manuscripts), beginning in the first half of the 14th century.

The Slavonic index in Russian manuscripts is known in Nomocanons. The first list of Slavonic origin is considered to be the index included in pergamen the collection of the charter character – "Pogodinsky Nomocanon" of the 14th century. This list for the first time includes in the titles of the works of a Slavic author, the compilation "Tale of the Cross Tree" by the Bulgarian priest Jeremiah, whose circle of works is established on the basis of the indications of this index and in part on the basis of Athanasius' "Epistle to Pank on the Cross Tree", the earliest copy (manuscript) of which is included in the Novgorod Kormchaia of 1280.

The Slavonic index is included in collections of permanent composition – the Church Statutes, Tribes, the Kormchaya, in relatively permanent composition – the "Golden Chain", "Izmaragd" and others, and in a large number of collections of non-permanent composition, such as the even collections compiled by Efrosin the scribe of the late 15th century. In most of the manuscript books of permanent composition, such as the Kormchaya, Ustav, etc. (with the exception of the Izbornik of 1073 and the Tacticon), the presence or absence of lists of abridged books does not depend on the edition of these books.

The sixteenth-century manuscript reflects a special edition of the Slavonic index, Metropolitan Zosima's Tale of the Denied Books.