This is a sheet (two pages of printed text) from an Old Church Slavonic printed Bible, dated to the early 19th century, presenting the Gospel of John about the Resurrection of Jesus.  The text is the New Testament, Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 1-12, with the very large letter "B" for the beginning of the chapter.    The size of the sheet is 5 3/4 in. x 8 1/2 in. (= 147 mm x 219 mm).   The text is in the Cyrillic alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic language.  On this sheet there are four (4) occurrences of the name "Jesus" in John 3: 2, 3, 5, and 10, in the form IHCZ (Iesuz, or "Jesus").   Also, there is one (1) occurrence of "Rabbi" at John 3:2 and two occurrences of "God" at John 3:3 and 5.       The winner will receive a xerox copy with the names marked.  Its authenticity if 100% guaranteed.

Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian or Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Thessalonica (modern Thessaloniki) by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. It was used by them for translation of the Bible and other texts from Greek and for some of their own writings. It played a great role in the history of Slavic languages and evolved into Church Slavonic, which is still used as a liturgical language by some Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches of the Slavic peoples.

History

The language was standardized for the mission of the two apostles to Great Moravia in 863 (see Glagolitic alphabet for details). For that purpose, Cyril and his brother Methodius first codified Old Church Slavonic from the Southern Slavic dialect spoken in the neighbourhood (hinterland) of their city, Thessalonica (Solun in Slavic), in the Byzantine Empire.

As part of the preparation for the mission, in 862/863, the Glagolitic alphabet was created and the most important prayers and liturgical books, including the Aprakos Evangeliar (a Gospel Book lectionary containing only feast-day and Sunday readings), the Psalter, and Acts of the Apostles, were translated. (The Gospels were also translated early, but it is unclear whether Sts. Cyril or Methodius had a hand in this). The language and the alphabet were taught at the Great Moravian Academy (Veľkomoravské učilište) and were used for government and religious documents and books between 863 and 885. The texts written during this phase contain characteristics of the Slavic vernaculars in Great Moravia.

In 885, the use of the Old Church Slavonic in Great Moravia was prohibited by the Pope in favour of Latin. Students of the two apostles, who were expelled from Great Moravia in 886, brought the Glagolitic alphabet and the Old Church Slavonic language to the Bulgarian Empire. It was taught at two Bulgarian academies - in Preslav (capital 893-972) and Ohrid (capital 991/997-1015). The Cyrillic alphabet was developed shortly afterwards in the Preslav Literary School and replaced the Glagolitic one. The texts written during this era contain characteristics of the vernacular of Bulgaria. There are some linguistic differences between texts written in the two academies.

Thereupon the language, in its Bulgarian recension, spread to other South-Eastern and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably to Croatia, Serbia, Bohemia, Lesser Poland, and the Russian principalities. The texts written in each country contain characteristics of the local Slavic vernacular.

Much later, local redactions of Old Church Slavonic were created for ecclesiastical and administrative use, and are collectively known as Church Slavonic (Macedonian: црковнословенски јазик, crkovnoslovenski jazik; Bulgarian: църковнославянски език, ts'rkovnoslavyanski ezik; Russian: церковнославя́нский язы́к, tserkovnoslavyánskiy yazík), but these terms are often confused. Church Slavonic maintained a prestige status, particularly in Russia, for many centuries—among Slavs in the East it had a status analogous to that of the Latin language in western Europe, but had the advantage of being substantially less divergent from the vernacular tongues of average parishioners. Some Orthodox churches, such as the Russian Orthodox Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as several Greek Catholic churches, still use Church Slavonic in their services and chants today.

Script

Initially Old Church Slavonic was written with the Glagolitic alphabet, but later it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet.

Authors

The history of Old Church Slavonic writing includes a northern tradition begun by the mission to Great Moravia, including a short mission in the Balaton principality, and a Bulgarian tradition begun by some of the missionaries who relocated to Bulgaria after the expulsion from Great Moravia.  Old Church Slavonic's first writings, translations of Christian liturgical and Biblical texts, were produced by Byzantine missionaries Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, mostly during their mission to Great Moravia.  The most important authors in Old Church Slavonic after the death of Methodius and the dissolution of the Great Moravian academy were Clement of Ohrid (active also in Great Moravia), Constantine of Preslav, Chernorizetz Hrabar and John Exarch, all of whom worked in medieval Bulgaria at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century.

Nomenclature

The original name of the language in the Old Church Slavonic texts was simply "Slavic."  The language is sometimes called "Old Slavic", but that term is undesirable as it may be confused with the distinct Proto-Slavic language.   The designation Old Bulgarian (German Altbulgarisch) was introduced in the 19th century by reputable linguists as August Schleicher, Martin Hattala and Leopold Geitler who noticed that the linguistic features of the first Slavic literary works are the same as those of the Bulgarian language. For similar reasons Russian linguist Aleksandr Vostokov used the term Slav-Bulgarian. The designation is, however, now considered by some as incorrect, as it implies that Old Church Slavonic was the ancestor exclusively of Bulgarian and that all manuscripts have a connection to Bulgarian.   The commonly accepted terms in modern English-language Slavic studies are Old Church Slavic (American usage) and Old Church Slavonic (British usage). Old Bulgarian can still be found in a number of sources and is the only designation used by Bulgarian linguistics. Some scholars use these terms for tradition's sake but believe that Old Macedonian better reflects the language's basis in the dialect of Thessaloniki spoken by Cyril and Methodius. This name is unrelated to current ethnic and political polemics surrounding the Republic of Macedonia, and its use predates these issues.