The director of the Volgograd Institute of Art Education Nikolai Taranov has many titles: calligrapher, doctor of pedagogy, candidate of art history, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. But few people know that he is still studying symbols. And, doing this, he went on the "detective trail" and made an amazing discovery.
Who invented the Slavic alphabet?
It would seem that everyone knows this: Cyril and Methodius, whom the Orthodox Church calls equal to the apostles for this merit. But what kind of alphabet did Kirill come up with - Cyrillic or Verb? (Methodius, it is known and proven, supported his brother in everything, but the “brain of the operation” and an educated person who knew many languages was the monk Cyril). There is still debate about this in the scientific world. Some Slavic scholars say: “Cyrillic! It is named after its creator. " Others object: “Glagolitic! The first letter of this alphabet looks like a cross. Cyril is a monk. It's a sign". It is also argued that before the work of Cyril, there was no written language in Russia. Professor Nikolai Taranov strongly disagrees with this.
- The assertion that there was no written language in Russia before Cyril and Methodius is based on one single document - the "Legend of the Writings" of the monastic Khrabr, found in Bulgaria, - says Nikolai Taranov. - There are 73 lists from this scroll, and in different copies, due to translation errors or errors of scribes, completely different versions of the key phrase for us. In one version: "the Slavs before Cyril did not have books", in the other - "letters", but the author indicates: "they wrote with lines and cuts." It is interesting that Arab travelers who visited Russia in the VIII century, that is, even before Rurik and even more so before Cyril, described the funeral of one Russian prince: “After the funeral, his soldiers wrote something on a white tree (birch) in honor of the prince, and then, riding on horses, they departed. " And in the Life of Cyril, known to the Russian Orthodox Church, we read:"In the city of Korsun, Cyril met a Rusyn (Russian) who had books with him written in Russian letters." Cyril (his mother was a Slav) got out some of his letters and with their help began to read the very books of the Rusyn. Moreover, these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same "Life of Cyril", translated into Russian "Psalter" and "Gospel". There is a lot of evidence that Russia had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov said the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, in which it is stated that Cyril did not invent these letters, but rediscovered them. Moreover, these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same "Life of Cyril", translated into Russian "Psalter" and "Gospel". There is a lot of evidence that Russia had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov said the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, in which it is stated that Cyril did not invent these letters, but rediscovered them. Moreover, these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same "Life of Cyril", translated into Russian "Psalter" and "Gospel". There is a lot of evidence that Russia had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov said the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, in which it is stated that Cyril did not invent these letters, but rediscovered them.
The question arises: why did Kirill create the Russian alphabet, if it already existed? The fact is that the monk Cyril had a task from the Moravian prince - to create for the Slavs an alphabet suitable for translating church books. Which he did. And the letters with which church books are now written (and in a modified form - our today's printed works) are the work of Cyril, that is, the Cyrillic alphabet.
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Was Glagolitic destroyed on purpose?
There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic alphabet was older than the Cyrillic alphabet, Taranov claims. There is such a concept among archaeologists and philologists - palimpsest. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another destroyed inscription, most often scraped out with a knife. In the Middle Ages, parchment made of the skin of a young lamb was quite expensive, and for the sake of economy, scribes often destroyed "unnecessary" records and documents, and wrote something new on the scraped sheet. So: everywhere in Russian palimpsests the Glagolitic alphabet is erased, and on top of it there are Cyrillic inscriptions. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- In the world there are only five monuments written in Glagolitic. The rest were destroyed. Moreover, in my opinion, the records in Glagolitic were destroyed on purpose, - says Professor Nikolai Taranov. - Since the Glagolitic alphabet was not suitable for writing church books. The numerical meaning of the letters (and then the belief in numerology was very strong) in it was different than what was required in Christianity. Out of respect for the Glagolitic alphabet, Kirill left in his alphabet the same letter names as they were. And they are very, very difficult for the alphabet, "born" in the 9th century, as it is claimed. Even then, all languages were striving for simplification, letters in all alphabets of that time denote only sounds. And only in the Slavic alphabet are the names of the letters: "Good", "People", "Think", "Earth", etc. And all because the Glagolitic alphabet is very ancient. It has many signs of pictographic writing.
Pictographic writing is a type of writing, the signs of which (pictograms) indicate the object depicted by them. The latest finds by archaeologists support this version. So, tablets with Slavic writing were found, the age of which dates back to 5000 BC.
The genius created the verb
All modern alphabets in Europe are descended from the Phoenician alphabet. In it, the letter A, as we were told, denotes the head of a bull, which then turned over with its horns down.
“And the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Sicilian wrote:“These letters are called Phoenician, although it is more correct to call them Pelasgic, since they were used by the Pelasgians,”Nikolai Taranov says. - Do you know who the Pelasgians are? These are the ancestors of the Slavs, the Proto-Slavic tribes. The Phoenicians stood out among the surrounding dark-skinned black-haired tribes of farmers, Egyptians and Sumerians with fair skin and red hair. Moreover, their passion for travel: they were excellent navigators.
In the 12th century BC, the Pelasgians took part in the Great Migration of Peoples, and their individual groups of desperate conquerors of new lands wandered very far. What gives the Volgograd professor a version: the Phoenicians were familiar with the Slavs and borrowed the alphabet from them. Otherwise, why did an alphabetic alphabet suddenly form next to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform?
- They say: "The Glagolitic alphabet was too decorative, complicated, so it was gradually replaced by a more rational Cyrillic alphabet." But the Glagolitic alphabet is not so bad, - Professor Taranov is sure. - I studied the earliest versions: the first letter of the Glagolitic alphabet does not mean a cross, but a person. That is why it is called "Az" - I. A man for himself is a starting point. And all the meanings of the letters in Glagolitic are through the prism of human perception. I painted the first letter of this alphabet on transparent film. Look, if you put it on other letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, you get a pictogram! I believe: not every designer will come up with this so that every grapheme falls into the grid. I am amazed at the artistic integrity of this alphabet. I think the unknown author of the Glagolitic alphabet was a genius! In no other alphabet in the world there is such a clear connection between the symbol and its digital and sacred meaning!
Glagolitic and numerology
Each sign in the Glagolitic alphabet has a sacred meaning and denotes a certain number.
The sign "Az" is a person, number 1.
The sign "I know" is the number 2, the sign is similar to the eyes and nose: "I see, then I know."
The sign "Live" is the number 7, the life and reality of this world.
The sign "Zelo" is the number 8, the reality of a miracle and something supernatural: "too", "very" or "too much".
The sign "Good" is the number 5, the only number that gives birth to its own kind or a decade: "Good begets good."
The sign "People" - number 50, according to numerology - the world from where human souls come to us.
The sign "Our" - number 70, symbolizes the connection between heavenly and earthly, that is, our world, given to us in sensations.
Sign "Omega" - number 700, a kind of divine world, "Seventh Heaven".
The sign "Earth" - according to Taranov, means a picture: the Earth and the Moon in the same orbit.