Keywords: liturgical structures, liturgical manuscripts, prayers for the departed, funeral practices, the Orthodox funeral
Abstract:
Especially for its age, but also because it is still used up to this day in most of the funeral traditions, the prayer “The God of the spirits…” is seen by specialists as one of the oldest Christian prayers for the departed. Regarding the variety of texts of the prayer “The God of the spirits…”, met in religious books and originating from the Holy Scripture, I noticed an essential aspect, more precisely that of the introduction of a “preferential” synod-like text of the Holy Scripture in the religious books. This was not always successful, since, on the one hand, this fact grants a uniform character to liturgical texts, but, on the other hand, it reduces the variety of forms and nuances that define essentially the Byzantine rite. Moreover, I consider that the statement of the Professor Robert Taft, one of the liturgists who have thoroughly studied the Byzantine liturgical phenomenon, regarding the erroneous title of “Biblical Psalter” (see: “Mount Athos: A Late Chapter in the History of the «Byzantine Rite»”, in: Dumbarton Oaks Papers 42 (1988), page 181) is more than eloquent. On the texts of the prayer “The God of the spirits…” we can write a lot more, since we face a phenomenon which was also noticed by some specialists who found that the current text of the prayer “The God of the spirits…” was altered and it is no longer compliant with the primary form, which was a lot cleaner (clearer), but, as I said, my analysis concerns only some aspects which, in my opinion, might be taken into account for the establishment of the origin of this prayer, and not only. Also, it should be mentioned that the expression (more precisely the addition) “in Abraham’s, Isaac’s and Jacob’s bosoms”, met in the prayer “The God of the spirits and of the whole body…” only in the texts of funeral inscriptions, will not disappear completely from the subsequent liturgical structures of the Funeral traditions. Even more, this expression still appears nowadays in the content of some prayers from “Funeral service of the departed secular priests and deacons”; unfortunately, the written tradition will not keep the addition “in Abraham’s, Isaac’s and Jacob’s bosoms” in the structure of the prayer “The God of the spirits…”.
Pages: 48-65