Paleia

(from Greek palaia diatheke, literally “Old Testament”), an Old Russian literary work modeled on a ninth-century Byzantine book recounting events from the Old Testament. The Paleia istoricheskaia (Historical Paleia), a translation of the Byzantine original, is an abridged account of biblical history supplemented with apocryphal tales. The Paleia tolkovaia (Explanatory Paleia), written in Rus’ in the 13th century, polemi-cizes against the Jewish and Muslim religions.