Dostoevskii's "Biblical syntax" in "Bros. Karamazov"

[Ralph Cleminson]

The prayer appears to be a reminiscence of the final prayer in the Third Hour of the Orthodox horologion, which reads in Slavonic:
Владыко Боже Отче Вседержителю, Господи Сыне Единородный Иісусе Христе, и Святый Душе, Едино Божество, Едина Сила, помилуй мя грѣшнаго, и имиже вѣси судьбами, спаси мя, недостойнаго раба Твоего, яко благословенъ еси во вѣки вѣковъ, аминь. 
and in Greek:
Δέσποτα Θεέ, Πάτερ Παντοκράτορ, Κύριε, Υἱὲ μονογενές, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, καὶ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, μία Θεότης, μία Δύναμις, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλον. καὶ οἷς ἐπίστασαι κρίμασι, σῶσόν με τὸν ἀνάξιον δοῦλόν σου, ὅτι εὐλογητὸς εἶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

The Slavonic syntax is obviously calqued from the Greek.  Nevertheless this reads quite naturally in Slavonic, in which this sort of construction has become thoroughly domesticated.

>>> On 07/05/2008 at 06:59, in message
<20080507005912.BEB81052 at expms6.cites.uiuc.edu>, Prof Steven P Hill
> 
> Date: Wed 7 May 00:36:04 CDT 2008
> From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU>  
> Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
> To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU> 
>  
> Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 13:06:06 +1000
> From: Robert Lagerberg <robertjl at UNIMELB.EDU.AU> 
> Subject: Re: Brothers K. 
> 
> Thanks for your prompt reply and explanation. Yes, obviously CS, and the use
> of a comma would make the overall structure clearer, but it still doesn't
> explain the use of the instrumental for the relative pronoun. One would
> expect the acc. pl. form here as the direct object of '(which) Thou
> knowest', not '(by which) Thou knowest'. In NT Greek the relative pronoun is
> sometimes put into the same case as its antecedent (see for example Luke 5:9
> and compare with 'correct' use in OCS texts), but, as a learned colleague
> points out, this is not the case in Church Slavonic. So perhaps we have here
> a word for word (and case for case) translation from the Greek, or something
> else.
> 
> Robert Lagerberg
> _______________________________________________________________ 
> 
>> From: <mclellan at PRINCETON.EDU>
>> Reply-To: "SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list"
>> <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
>> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:50:02 -0400
>> To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Brothers K.
>> 
>> The phrase is not Russian, but Church Slavonic.
>  
>> имиже (imizhe). here spelled as two words, is the relative
>> pronoun, веси (properly вѣси in the orthography in which
>> Dostoevsky wrote it) (vesi), from вѣдѣти, "to know," is the
>> verb.  "By the ways/paths which Thou knowest, save them."
>> Frank McLellan
> ____________________________________________________________
>> 
>> On Apr 22, 2008, at 10:22 PM, Robert Lagerberg wrote:
>> 
>>> Can anyone parse the following sentence from Brothers Karamazov
>>> (Еще одна
>>> погибшая репутация), specifically the two verbal
>>> forms which appear to be at
>>> odds with each other?
>>> ими же веси путями спаси их
> 
>  «Господи, помилуй
>>> их всех, давешних, сохрани их,
>>> несчастных и бурных, и направь. У
>>> тебя пути: ими же веси путями спаси
>>> их. Ты
>>> любовь, ты всем пошлешь и радость!» —
>>> бормотал, крестясь, засыпая
>>> безмятежным сном, Алеша.
>>> 
>>> Thank you
>  >> Dr Robert Lagerberg
> __________________________________________________________________
> 
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