[158]as thelightning ...: see Matthew 24:27, Luke 17:24.
[159]scorched squares:also from Polezhayev’s poem.
[160]ad majorem . . .:“for the greater glory of God,” the motto of the Jesuits (correctly ad majorem Dei gloriam).
[161]Talitha cumi: “damsel arise” in Aramaic: Mark 5:40-42. Ivan bases this “second appearance” of Christ on Gospel accounts.
[162]fragrant with laurel andlemon: an altered quotation from scene 2 of Pushkin’s “The Stone Guest,” a play on the Don Juan theme, set in Seville (one of Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies”).
[163]quipro quo:Latin legal term: “one for another,” i.e., mistaken identity.
[164]I want to make you free:see John 8:31-36.
[165]to bind and loose: seeMatthew 16:19.
[166]”tempted” you: see Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13.
[167]Who can compare...: see Revelation 13:4,13 (also note 10 to page 244 in section 2.5.4).
[168]Tower of Babeclass="underline" see note 2 to page 26 in section 1.1.5.
[169]Instead of the firm ancient law:according to Christ’s words in the Gospel (Matthew 5:17-18), he came not to replace but to fulfill the law given to Moses. The Inquisitor (or Ivan) overstates his case.
[170]If you would know... see Matthew 4:6. The text is misquoted, and the last two clauses are added.
[171]Come down...: an abbreviated misquotation of Matthew 27:42 (see also Mark 15:32).
[172]Your great prophet . . .:again, St. John (see Revelation 7:4-8).
[173]locusts and roots:see Matthew 3:4, Mark 1:6; the allusion is to John the Baptist.
[174]Exactly eight centuries ago . . .:in 755 ad, eight centuries before the Inquisitor’s time (mid sixteenth century), Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, took the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis (“five cities”: i.e., Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinnigaglia, and Ancona) from the Lombards and turned the territories over to Pope Stephen II, thus initiating the secular power of the papacy.
[175]And it is then that the beast ... “Mystery!”: combines the Great Beast from Revelation 13 and 17 with lines from scene 2 of Pushkin’s “Covetous Knight” (another of the “Little Tragedies”): “Submissive, timid, blood-bespattered crime / Comes crawling to my feet, licking my hand, / Looking me in the eye . . .” (see Terras, p. 235).
[176]It is said . . .:see Revelation 17:15-16.
[177]that the number be complete:see Revelation 6:11 (Revised Standard Version).
[178]Dm: “I have spoken.”
[179]filthy earthly lucre: see Titus 1:7.
[180]imaginethat even the Masons . . .:Freemasons, a secret society of mutual aid and brotherhood who organized their first “grand lodge” in London in 1717 and from there spread to most parts of the world; considered heretical by the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
[181]dark squares:an altered quotation from Pushkin’s poem “Remembrance” (1828).
[182]you go right, I’ll go left...: see perhaps Genesis 13:9. The left is the “sinister” side, associated with the devil, especially in depictions of the Last Judgment. Ivan hunches up his left shoulder in a moment; Smerdyakov often squints or winks with his left eye.
[183]Pater Seraphicus:“Seraphic Father.” An epithet applied to St. Francis of Assisi; also an allusion to Goethe’s Faust, part 2, act 5, lines 11918-25. Ivan’s sarcasm is not without respect.
[184]this contemplator: seethe end of B.K.1.3.6.
[185]servant Licharda:Licharda (a distortion of “Richard”) is the faithful servant in The Tale of Prince Bova,a sixteenth-century Russian version of a medieval romance of French origin widely spread in Europe. Licharda is used by the evil queen in her plot to murder the king.
[186]His name isGorstkin . . .: “Lyagavy,” Gorstkin’s nickname, means “bird dog.”
[187]Great Lent:the forty-day fast preceding Easter; called the “Great Lent” in the Orthodox Church to distinguish it from “lesser” fasts during the liturgical year.
[188]Holy Week:see note 6 to page 168 in section 2.4.1.
[189]One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories . . .:a Russian translation of a German collection of Bible stories edited by Johannes Hiibner (1714). According to his wife, Dostoevsky had this book as a child and “learned to read with it.”
[190]analogion: (from Greek) lectern; a stand in the middle of the church on which the Bible is placed during readings.
[191]There was a man...: the beginning of the Book of Job; here and in the following, Zosima paraphrases from memory.
[192]Naked came I. ..: from Job, with some alterations: Zosima significantly adds “into the earth” and from habit concludes Job’s words “blessed be the name of the Lord” with the liturgical formula “henceforth and forevermore” (the whole phrase is an exclamation repeated three times near the end of the Orthodox liturgy).
[193]Let my prayer arise...: the full phrase is “Let my prayer arise in thy sight as incense”; sung at Vespers during the censing of the church. In the services of Holy Week, people customarily kneel while the verses are sung. The Book of Job is read at Vespers on Holy Monday and Tuesday.
[194]unto ages of ages:a liturgical formula (cf. the Latin in saecula saeculorum).
[195]work:a parish priest would often have to do his own farming as well as serve his parish.
[196]Read to them of Abraham and Sarah...: see Genesis 11-35. The words “How dreadful is this place” (Genesis 28:17) belong to the episode of Jacob’s dream of the ladder, not that of his wrestling with the angel.
[197]Joseph: Genesis 37-50.
[198]havinguttered... the great word...: Jacob’s prophecy about Judah (Genesis 49:10) is regarded by Christians as referring to Christ.
[199]Saul’sspeech: Acts 13:16-41.
[200]Alexei, the man of God:see note 3 to page 50 in section 1.2.3.
[201]Mary of Egypt:a fifth-century saint greatly venerated in Orthodoxy; a prostitute who became a Christian and spent forty-seven years in the desert in prayer and repentance.
[202]And I told him of how a bear . . .:an episode from the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1314-99), one of the greatest figures in the history of the Russian Church, founder of an important monastery in Zagorsk, near Moscow.
[203]for the day and the hour . . see Revelation 9:15.
[204]1826: the “important event” must have been the Decembrist uprising of 14 December 1825, aimed at limiting the power of the tsar.
[205]Then the sign . . .: see Matthew 24:30, Christ’s words about his Second Coming.
[206]Russian translation:the language of the Russian Church is Old Slavonic, not Russian. The New Testament was translated into Russian early in the nineteenth century.
[207]for the day and the hour . .:see note 17 to page 296 in section 2.6.2.
[208]Thisstar...: see Matthew 2:2.
[209]kulaks and commune-eaters:abusive terms for peasants who act against the communal life of the village for their own private gain. Kulakliterally means “fist.”
[210]their wrath ...: Genesis 49:7.
[211]in accordance with the Gospeclass="underline" see Matthew 20:25-26,23:11; Mark 9:35,10:43.