Experience of Reconstruction of Isosyllabic Poetry of the New Testament

Part 1

Abstract

The present publication continues a series of works by archpriest Leonid Grilikhes on the «Semitic reconstruction» of the New Testament texts. At the same time, it represents a fundamentally new approach to the reconstruction, which was only outlined in archpriest Leonid’s early works. The author presumes that the parables of Jesus Christ, as well as a significant number of His other speeches, were isosyllabic poetic texts. In other words, they included an equal number ofsyllables in each line. The patterns represented by the reconstructed texts allow the author to describe several «rules» characteristic for the original language of the parables. The present publication familiarizes the competent reader with the reconstructions of two texts, namely, the speech of Jesus on the Law of Moses from the Sermon on the Mount, and the parable of the Last Judgment.