Alcune considerazioni in margine al De lepra di Metodio di Olimpo

This article aims to present the first and partial results of a study on the Methodius of Olympus’ De lepra. The main purpose of the research is to discuss the choices adopted by the Slavonic translator who has returned to us, in all evidence, a synthetic and, in part, contradictory text with respect to the Methodian thought and style that can be reconstructed thanks to Symposium and passages from other works that have come down to us in Greek. In this paper, an attempt has been made to account for and propose solutions to the translator’s expunctions, and particular attention has been turned to the use of technical vocabulary in the exegetical field. Finally, a brief reflection has been devoted to the Methodian theory on original sin, which in De lepra, contrary to Symposium and the De resurrectione, is read as resulting from a sexual transgression. This apparent and singular change in Methodian thought invites us to think that it is still crucial to investigate the incidence of these operations in the Old Slavonic translations, in order to understand to which cultural and religious milieus such modifications, expunctions and censures may be ascribable.