The ''Sermon on Law and Grace'' ( cu, Слово о законѣ и благодѣти, ''Slovo o zakone i blagodeti'') is a

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. ...

written by the Kievan

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

Hilarion. It is one of the earliest Slavonic texts available, having been written several decades before the '' Primary Chronicle''. Since Hilarion was considered to be a writer worthy of imitation, this sermon was very influential in the further development of both the style and content of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas o ...

literature. The Sermon was an important event to be mentioned in the ''Primary Chronicle'', and by matching against other events from the Chronicle it was concluded that the Sermon was written somewhere between 1037 and 1050.

Title

Although commonly called the ''Sermon on Law and Grace'', the work bears a much longer title: ::''Concerning: the Law given by Moses and the Grace and Truth which came by Jesus Christ. And: how the Law departed, and Grace and Truth filled all the earth, and Faith spread forth to all nations, even unto our nation of Rus'. And: an encomium to our kagan Vlodimer, by whom we were baptized. And: a prayer to God from all our land.'' :: orv, О законѣ мωѵсѣомъ данѣѣмъ, и ω благодѣти и истинѣ исоусомъ христъмъ бывшϊи. И како законъ ѿтиде, благодѣть же и истина всю землю исполни, и вѣра въ всѧ ꙗзыкы простреся и до нашего ꙗзыка роускаго, и похвала каганоу нашемоу влодимероу, ѿ негоже крещени быхомъ и молитва къ богѫ ѿ всеа зьмлѧ нашеа

Summary

The sermon is divided into two distinct parts. The first part presents the

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninc ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

surpassing and replacing the Law of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. Hilarion retells the Old Testament account of

Hagar Hagar, of uncertain origin; ar, هَاجَر, Hājar; grc, Ἁγάρ, Hagár; la, Agar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to ...

, the handmaiden of

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

, and Sarah, his wife. He likens

Isaac Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was ...

, "the free son of a free mother", to the followers of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

, and

Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

, "a servant (not a truly free man)", to the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Hilarion emphasizes that the Law came first, and then came Grace, just as Ishmael came before Isaac. He then explains that the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

now spreads over the whole

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

, while the "lake of the Law" has dried up. The second part serves as a eulogy to Vladimir, the grand prince of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

, and baptizer of Rus'. It is written in a highly rhetorical

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of gr ...

, possibly for the purpose of presenting Vladimir as a candidate for

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

Analysis

Church slavonic language Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Her ...

is a sacred language here, because of the references to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

. The book should not be an oratorical essay, but simply a narrative play.

Audience

While the sermon was most likely composed for the Christian elite of Kievan Rus' and given at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, scholars are still uncertain of many details pertaining to the presentation of the sermon. Russian philologist Aleksander Uzhankov considers that The Sermon on Law and Grace was pronounced in the evening of 25 March 1038, in the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Golden Gate in

,Ужанков А. Н. «Слово о Законе и Благодати» и другие творения митрополита Илариона Киевского. — М.: «Академика», 2013. — С. 49—73 Some scholars suggest that the two parts of the sermon were presented on different occasions and were brought together only during later compilation.

References

External links

Full text in modern Ukrainian translation

Full text in English translation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sermon On Law And Grace Old Church Slavonic literature Literature of Kievan Rus