Fedor Ivanov as the author of the treatise “On the Knowledge of Antichrist’s Prelest”: pro et contra

Abstract

This study analyzes the work “On the Knowledge of Antichrist Prelest (Delusion)” that has been attributed to Fedor Ivanov so far. Fedor Ivanov was the ideologist of the Old Believers, condemned at the Moscow Cathedral in the 1666–1667 years and executed in Pustozersk in 1682 together with Archpriest Avvakum, priest Lazar, and monk Epiphanius. A twofold argument is offered that the text in question does not correspond either to Fyodor Ivanov’s manner of constructing the statement or to his understanding of the theological topics. The approach applied is based on phenomenological philosophy and philological hermeneutics. The main linguistic methods are description, comparison and contrast, and contextual analysis. First, a text fragment with an internal rhyme was selected and compared with other documents of Fedor Ivanov in terms of internal rhyme. The arithmetic mean of the number of components “from comma to comma” in the text analyzed has been revealed not to be characteristic of the writing style of the Old Believers’ ideologue. Second, the interpretation of the Antichrist in the text concerned was compared with that in the “Epistle to All Orthodox about Antichrist.” A discrepancy was revealed that cannot result from the author’s changing the target setting. Finally, a conclusion is made that the essay “On the Knowledge of Antichrist Prelest” was not created by Fedor Ivanov.